As I reported on my own blog on 7 April
(http://daphneanson.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/in-australia-schoolkids-study.html)
“the play City by the Sea, by poet,
writer and activist Samah Sabawi, a Gaza-born (1967) Australian/Canadian, is
now on the 2016 playlist for school students taking the Victorian Certificate
of Education [the school-leaving certificate in the Australian state of
Victoria]. It means that students in
years 11 and 12 will be attending performances of the play at La Mama Theatre
in Melbourne in May….”

I quoted at some length from an official
document by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) which
says, inter alia, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity
might be needed where particular issues or themes that are explored may be
challenging for students. Teachers are advised to familiarise themselves with
the treatment of these issues and themes within the context and world of the
play prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript. This might
involve reading the playscript, talking with the theatre company, researching
the playscript, the work of the playwright, director and/or company, attending
a preview performance and/or discussing the matter with the school
administration. Information provided in this notice about themes and/or
language used in specific plays is a guide only. In some plays, suggestive and
potentially offensive words and phrases are used. This language may invite
adverse comment from some areas of the community”.

I quoted a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that notes “A
longtime vocal advocate for Palestinian rights, Sabawi recently made headlines
when she was taken off the panel at an Israel-Palestine debate at the Wheeler
Centre, only to be promptly reinstated four hours later. At the time, Sabawi
said that she thought her ejection from the panel was due to pressure from
those who object to her support for the BDS [Boycotts, Divestment and
Sanctions] movement against Israel” and continues “The City and the Sea is undeniably political …”and from a review in
The Age of Melbourne that remarks
“This gripping play is an act of resistance that implores its audience to take
heed.” And I observed: “Tailor-made, wouldn't you say, for teachers who may be
left-wing anti-Zionists, and indeed any teacher who relies for information
about the Middle East on such biased sources as the Fairfax Press (The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald), the ABC and SBS, wittingly or unwittingly
to poison young minds?”

I went on to cite the jubilation of those
connected with the play: “Congratulations to all of us! Palestinian play highlighting challenges of
life in Gaza during the war of 2008-2009 has been selected for the 2016
Victorian Certificate of Education Drama list.
The play Tales of a City by
the Sea by Palestinian Australian playwright Samah Sabawi was one of 16 of more
than 50 submissions selected for the 3 VCE Playlists. As a result, it will be seen and studied by
hundreds of year 11 & 12 Theatre students in Victoria and it will be published
by Currency Press and disseminated among these students.”

And when I realised that nobody in the
Australian Jewish communal leadership seemed to be aware of the play, much less
its inclusion on this year’s curriculum in Victoria, I (and perhaps others) alerted
Dr Dvir Abramovich, an academic who chairs the Anti-Defamation League, and is
one of the most effective and dedicated figures on the Australian Jewish
communal leadership scene today. Having
read the transcript of the play he has roundly condemned it, declaring on the
Special Broadcasting Station (SBS), an ethnic minorities’ and foreign-language
public broadcaster not known for any great sympathy for Israel: “This is one of
the most disturbing and cleverly conceived cases of anti-Israel propaganda and
delegitimization masquerading as art that I’ve seen. I think it's very troubling that this skewed
play is now part of the VCE curriculum and it will certainly poison the minds
of impressionable young people.”

To quote The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vce-play-accused-of-being-antiisrael-propaganda-20160509-gopz96.html
): ‘The play is
one of six selected for year 12 students studying VCE drama. Students will
watch the performance and study the text throughout the year. Dr Dvir Abramovich, chair of the B'nai B'rith
Anti-Defamation Commission, a body raising awareness about anti-Semitism and
hate speech, said the play portrays Israel as a "blood-thirsty, evil
war-machine", without any explanation for the bombings, or the violence
perpetrated by the Palestinian camp. He
took aim at the authority for including the "unabashedly one-sided"
play in the curriculum, claiming the content was "anti-Israel
propaganda". "Nowhere to be
found is the Israeli perspective ... the suicide bombings inside Israel, the
deaths of more than 160 children who were forced to dig tunnels by Hamas, the
offers of peace by Israel, the thousands of rockets fired at Israel from
Gaza," he said. "What this play does, amongst other things, is to
create a tremendously hostile climate in which any Jewish student who will see
the play with their classmates … will be ashamed and worried about expressing
any support for Israel or even admit that they have a link with the Jewish
state."’The Australian (behind a pay wall) has quoted Dr Abramovich as saying “I am genuinely
concerned for any Jewish-Australian pupils who will have to deal with the
outrage and visceral contempt of their classmates at school.”

And the ABC
reports (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-10/'anti-israel'-play-in-vce-curriculum-government-questioned/7402176) the Opposition Liberal Party
‘has used a budget hearing to attack the Government over the inclusion of a
play in the VCE curriculum that has been labelled anti-Israel…. Jewish groups
have said the play is a one-sided depiction of the conflict, and conservative
MPs seized on the issue during a budget hearing today. Liberal Tim Smith
questioned why the play had been included in the curriculum… "I want to
know why you've got clearly an anti-Israel play being taught to our children.
This is a real concern from the Jewish community about clearly a play that is
anti-Israel, that has been authored by an anti-Israeli activist. Why is this
being taught in our schools that would give rise to an anti-Israel view coming
out of our schools?" …. Education Minister James Merlino said it was not
up to politicians to set the curriculum.
He said the Government was not in the business of banning books. "Decisions regarding what is included in
the curriculum ... those decisions quite rightly are made by the VCAA," Mr
Merlino said. "Not the minister, not the Government. It's not the place of
politicians to decide what books are to be placed on the reading list, what
plays are to be delivered as part of the drama program. And that's how it should
be."… But Liberal Party MP David Morris questioned whether the text would
be allowed to remain if it attacked a different group, such as the Lesbian Gay
Bisexual Transgender and Intersex community. "This is a one-sided
portrayal of what is undoubtedly a complex conflict," he said.
"Surely when there's a play selected for study that's one sided, that's
divisive, that will undoubtedly make students of Jewish background at the least
feel extremely uncomfortable and potentially feel that they're at risk of persecution,
surely then as the Minister there is a responsibility on your part to
intervene?" Mr Merlino said he trusted teachers would focus on the
dramatic elements of the play and explain the political context.’

Tellingly, the
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network has described the play as “an important
opportunity to glimpse what life is like behind the wire. Israel’s military attacks on Gaza and the
blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt has cost thousands of innocent lives. The
play also reports on the internal repression of the Palestinian political
factions in the Strip….”

Tellingly, too, a
hard core member of the leftist frequently Israel-demonising non-mainstream
Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDC) has professed on Facebook to raise
“a digit finger raised to Dvir Abromwich [sic] of the pro-defamation
Anti-Defamation Commission”, while another AJDS stalwart (whose
repugnant views regarding BDS can be read here http://www.ajds.org.au/2013/06/jewishpalestiniansolidarity/) declares:
"It is vitally important that young people, including those who are
Israeli or Jewish, are able to access these stories, and hear them articulated
from a Palestinian perspective. Having this play on the VCE syllabus will help
to open people's minds, not close them off."

On 11 May, beneath a report of the furore
over the play here (http://www.jwire.com.au/not-education-propoganda/), a commenter called James Crafti declared: “I am Jewish and worked on the
play. I was one of the first people Samah had review the script when she did a
first draft in 2011. I also worked as the assistant stage manager on this
remount of the play. It is a fantastic play and people should really see it.
People should come and see it with an open mind”.

Here (https://talesofacitybythesea.com/tag/james-crafti/) we learn that “James Crafti is
excited to be working on Tales of a City
by the Sea as it combines two of his passions: theatre and Palestine. On
the former James has directed a variety of plays such as … Seven Jewish Children…. James has also been an organiser with
Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid, Australians for Justice and Peace in
Palestine and Jews Against Israeli Apartheid”.

Needless to say, choosing (or not) to see
the play at the theatre is one thing.
Having it thrust at impressionable young people via their school
curriculum, quite another: it is unconscionable. Unconscionable too that no consultation with
Jewish leaders in Victoria seems to have taken place, so that they had no input
into the matter until it was a fait accompli. The Jewish communities of the
other states should be on their guard and not let this play or anything
comparable pass under the radar.

I don’t agree with all this left-leaning
Australian Jew quoted below has said on social media, but he is absolutely
correct in condemning the play creeping into the purview of school students and
the attempted justification of such by elements in the Jewish Left: ‘The
Palestinians are already winning the propaganda war against Israel by a mile in
Western Leftist circles. We all know their suffering is real, and some of this
suffering is no doubt caused by the excesses of the present hard-line,
right-wing Israeli government. What is not true is that Israel is the only
cause of their suffering. The main cause is the corrupt, duplicitous and
divided Palestinian leadership, which uses aid money to enrich themselves and
the materials that come into Gaza to build tunnels to attack Israel instead of
building housing for their own people. They use their people as human shields
and cannon fodder. They teach hate in their schools and Hamas still have a
charter which calls for the complete destruction of Israel and the killing of
every Jew. And let's not forget the complicity of the Arab countries, which
could have re-settled the Palestinians long ago, but they chose to instead use
them as pawns to show how evil Israel is.”

And again: ‘A love story it may be … but, according to an
article by the education reporter of The
Age, ‘Characters in the play describe Israeli rule as
"tyrannical". One accuses Israel of leading a "massacre" of
the Palestinian people, questioning: "What Holy Scripture gave the command
'Thou shall wipe out their villages and scorch their land?' ….The play was
written by an anti-Israel Palestinian activist who supports the BDS movement. I
guess you have to be someone who knows the history of the Middle East, and of
the centuries of persecution of the Jews both there and in Europe to read
between the lines and to appreciate the skewed emphasis here.’

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